The St. Paul Chamber Orchestra, America’s only full-time professional chamber orchestra, has laid off ten administrative employees in an attempt to balance its books in the face of a shrinking endowment and below-average donations. Observers were surprised by the layoffs, since the SPCO finished last season in the black, one of only three American orchestras to do so. The ensemble survived a brush with bankruptcy a decade ago, but has operated without deficits for nine straight seasons.